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March 1 st: Paphiopedilum Maudiae Hybrids Speaker: Tim Culbertson

Although I teach middle school kids for a living, one of my passions has always been plants. I began growing orchids as an offshoot from working at Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia just after college. From the very beginning it was all about Paphs, particularly awarded and selected clones of historic importance, of which my collection numbers nearly 3000. While I love finding old, rare stepping stones in Paph. breeding, I also do a little hybridizing of my own, and growing up my own babies is a blast. I am the youngest accredited judge with the American Orchid Society, and have served in various capacities with various orchid societies in California and on the East Coast. I love meeting other people who like orchids too, and doing so often finds me traveling to shows, vendors, and peoples’ greenhouses to see the latest and greatest in new hybrids and to get the best orchid gossip. I like to be involved in plants as much as possible: in addition to Longwood, I’ve worked at the Smithsonian Institution tending to their orchids, and for years for the United States National Arboretum, collecting rare plants and documenting cultivated species and hybrids for their herbarium. In short, I really like plants. For your meeting, I’ll be sharing a presentation on Maudiae-type Paphs. These plants are easy to grow and flower, are vigorous, and have low demands on light and fertilizer, and as such are wonderful plants! Tremendous advancements in breeding Maudiae-type Paphs have been made recently, and I will share some of these with you, as well as help identify some of the important species in the backgrounds of historically important and modern Maudiae-type Paphs. By the end of this presentation, you will have a new appreciation of what goes into breeding trends for these types of plants, as well as an appreciation of their beautiful flowers and ease-of-growth. I will be providing a plant table of the newest, modern, cutting-edge Maudiae-Paph-style breeding, with both blooming and un-bloomed plants.

We are delighted to welcome Arthur Pinkers as speaker for our June 1st meeting.

Arthur has been an orchid enthusiast for almost 40 years when, as a 16 year-old, he acquired a plant of Slc. Glittering Jewel (Sl. Gratrixiae x Slc. Hermes) and was infected by the orchid bug. He and his wife Margie of over 25 years have two adult children who recently graduated from high school and are attending College of the Canyons. Arthur grew up in the Seattle area and attended Western Washington University graduating with a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology. He and his wife currently live in Santa Clarita, California where Arthur is learning to grow orchids under extreme conditions, very different than those in his native Pacific Northwest. Arthur worked for many years as a chemist and also had the fortune of holding his dream job as the Lab Director for Beall Orchid Company until shortly before its close in 1990. Arthur’s interest in orchids covers a broad range of types with botanicals being a special draw. Arthur has served on most executive positions on the Board of the Northwest Orchid Society and is a Past President. He is a veteran Accredited Orchid Judge and serves as a photographer and as Chair of Information for the Pacific South Judging region. Previously he served as center photographer for the Pacific Northwest Judging region.

Arthur’s talk should be very informative on a subject that we have not had in recent history. Arthur will provide the POT, which will feature plants from Santa Barbara Orchid Estate and Orchids Royale.

Our guest speaker for our next SFVOS General meeting on March 2, 2016 is our very own SFVOS Vice President Pamela Aitchison, who will be sharing information about how to keep our orchids healthy in our home environments. Her talk will cover many topics that will especially be of interest to new orchid growers, but experienced orchid growers may learn a trick or two as well.

Pam is a Certified University of California Master Gardener, and has been teaching organic gardening for many years. She provides training to the new Master Gardener Candidates every year, and is a regular guest lecturer at California State University Northridge (CSUN), the LA County Fair, and schools and non-profit organizations throughout Southern California.

Pam has been growing orchids for more than 30 years, and her collection includes Cattleyas, Dendrobiums, Epidendrums, Miltonias & Miltoniopsis, Oncidiums, Masdevallias, as well as Phalaenopsis, Cymbidiums, Vandas, Vanilla Orchids and Zygopetalums.

Pam will be showing us a PowerPoint Presentation and will hopefully give you many ideas and suggestions for caring for your orchids at home. You won’t want to miss this lecture, so mark your calendar today.

Orchid educator Doug Overstreet, considered by some to be a “man of all orchids,” will present the program when the San Fernando Valley Orchid Society meets at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016 at the Sepulveda Garden Center. The program is free and open to our members and to the public. Doug will be speaking about the care and feeding of orchids. He will be demonstrating re-potting techniques, and giving us all his tips and tricks to help our plants be healthy and beautiful.

Many of you already know Doug as our interesting and knowledgeable auctioneer at our annual orchid auctions. His encyclopedic knowledge of orchids and lively banter always make for a great orchid auction experience.

Doug Overstreet was born and raised in New Mexico. He is a descendant on both sides from a long line of farmers and is the son a floral designer, so he comes by his interest in orchids naturally. Overstreet began growing orchids at the age of 10 and said he has been avidly involved in the hobby ever since. He continued his love affair with orchids after moving to California in 1975.

In 1984, his collection began to grow by leaps and bounds, and he now maintains a mixed collection of approximately 1,000 plants. Overstreet also became an active participant in the local orchid community. Over the years, he has served on the board of the Orchid Society of Southern California, and he is a past president and board member of the Southland Orchid Show Committee. He is a former ribbon-judging chairman for the Orchid Society of Southern California and is an accredited American Orchid Society judge in the Pacific South Region.

A frequent lecturer on orchids and related topics, he has spoken for numerous orchid societies, botanical gardens and orchid nurseries. He is noted for his ability to present complex information on orchids clearly, concisely and in a manner suitable for the advanced enthusiast but also easily understandable by the beginner.

Overstreet has written articles for Orchid Digest and has served on the editorial committee of that publication as assistant editor. He lives in the Glendale area and owns and operates Nature’s Bounty Orchids, a small nursery serving the Southern California hobbyist and gift plant community through local certified farmers’ markets.

Our guest speaker for January will be James Rose, owner of Cal Orchids. Jim will open his presentation by teaching us the best way to re-pot our orchids. This is an important skill, and is a subject many have requested.

His main topic will be the “Orchids of Madagascar”. Madagascar is best known for its remarkable fauna, including the famous lemurs. It is also home to over 900 orchid species in 57 genera, many of which are as endangered as the lemurs. These orchids are so beautiful and unique.

You may be familiar with the story of “Darwin’s” orchid. Angraecum sesquipedale, which is also known as theChristmas orchid, Star of Bethlehem orchid, and King of the Angraecums, is an epiphyticorchid in the genus Angraecum endemic to Madagascar. It is noteworthy for its long spur and its association with the naturalist Charles Darwin, who surmised that the flower was pollinated by a then undiscovered moth with a proboscis whose length was unprecedented at the time. His prediction had gone unverified until 21 years after his death, when the moth was discovered and his conjecture vindicated.

These orchids are highly prized and hunted by collectors and the orchid trade. Additionally, much of Madagascar is rainforest, and much of that rainforest is disappearing. When the rainforest the threatened, the orchids that live there are also in peril. Some of the threatened species are Angraecum longicalcar, Angraecum magdalenae, Bulbophyllum hamelinii, Grammangis spectabilis

and Eulophiella roempleriana. Be sure to mark your calendar. You won’t want to miss this highly informative talk and the culture session on “repotting”.

Although I teach middle school kids for a living, one of my passions has always been plants. I began growing orchids as an offshoot from working at Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia just after college. From the very beginning it was all about Paphs, particularly awarded and select clones of historic importance, of which my collection numbers nearly 1000.

While I love finding old, rare stepping stones in paph breeding, I also do a little hybridizing of my own, and growing up my own babies is a blast. I enjoy making my culture the best it can be, and I have had numerous experiences with professional growers in California and on the East Coast, which has helped tremendously.

I am the youngest accredited judge with the American Orchid Society, and have served in various capacities with local orchid societies. I love meeting other people who like orchids too, and doing so often finds me traveling to shows, vendors, and peoples’ greenhouses to see the latest and greatest in new hybrids and to get the best orchid gossip. I like to be involved in plants as much as possible: in addition to Longwood, I’ve worked at the Smithsonian Institution tending to their orchids, and for years for the United States National Arboretum, collecting rare plants and documenting cultivated species and hybrids for their herbarium.

For your meeting, I’ll be sharing a presentation on recent advances in Lycaste breeding, culture, and growing. These plants are easy to grow and flower, are vigorous, and have low demands on culture, and as such are wonderful plants! Tremendous advancements in breeding Lycastes have been made recently, and I will share some of these with you, as well as help identify some of the important species in the backgrounds of historically important and modern Lycastes.

By the end of this presentation, you will have a new appreciation of what goes into breeding trends for these types of plants, as well as an appreciation of their beautiful flowers and ease-of-growth. I will be providing a plant table of the newest, modern, cutting-edge Lycaste breeding, with both blooming and un-bloomed plants.

Learn about collecting, growing, re-potting, and pest control from our monthly meetings’ guest speakers, many of whom are local, national and internationally recognized orchid experts. For just the cost of your annual dues, you can see their fabulous photographs, techniques, and presentations. You have the opportunity to listen and ask questions of these experts up close and personal. How great is that!

Rub elbows with your fellow orchid enthusiasts. Many of our members have become good friends. Several of our members are expert growers in their own right. Ask questions, swap ideas and learn from each other, while you share a tasty snack from our well stocked refreshment table every month.

Share your beautiful blooming orchids and see what the other members are growing at our monthly “Show and Tell”. Exhibitors have the opportunity to share information about their special plants and members can ask questions. You can also bring your camera a test your photographic skills.

As a member, you will receive our Monthly SFVOS Newsletter via email (or by snail mail). Each issue is packed with the information you need to keep up with what’s happening in the orchid world. Every month you receive a preview of our upcoming meeting, plus a Calendar of upcoming events, educational articles, and much, much more.

You’ll have unlimited access to our own com website that has hundreds of tips on how to care for your orchids. Discover what happening in the orchid world, look up a solution to a problem or download culture sheets. There is also a library of past issues of our Newsletter, links to instructional videos, and Monthly Orchid Care Checklists just to name a few of the features found on our website.

Take home fabulous orchids every month from our Plant Opportunity Table (POT). For just the cost of a few “opportunity” tickets you could be a big winner.

You are invited to attend our annual Holiday Party in December to share a meal and fun times.

The San Fernando Valley Orchid Society is a non-profit organization. Your membership dues pay for our Guest Speakers every month, provide the plants for the POT each month and pay our ongoing expenses such as our rent, website fees, and required insurance costs. Our Monthly meetings are held on the 1st Wednesday of the month at the Sepulveda Garden Center, located at 16633 Magnolia Blvd, Encino, CA 91436. Meeting starts at 7:00 pm.

We closed our fiscal year with a Pot Luck dinner at the June meeting. Members contributed generously and innovatively for the Pot Luck tables. Dinner was followed by member­speakers Art Mendoza and Millie Peskay who told of their experiences with cymbidium and

Vanda orchids. Thanks Art and Millie.

Millie donated a lovely plant purchased at the Conejo Orchid Society’s annual sale. It was sold at auction with proceeds to our Society.

Treasurer Bob Peskay gave a short summary of our finances for the Fiscal Year 2014-­2015. Expenses exceeded income by $557 for the year and would have been more except for contributions of $625 from our members. Bob pointed out the great help of the contributions to support the ongoing programs and was greeted with generous contributions from Frank and Florence Shimizu and new member Jessie Broussard. Members may contribute at meetings or by mail directly to the treasurer. A more detailed financial report is elsewhere in this newsletter. We all had fun with three Bingo games with P.O.T. drawings between each game. Prizes were orchids purchased from Cal Orchids in Santa Barbara.

Finally, thanks to all the members for making a great year. As Usual, there will be no meeting in August so I look forward to seeing everybody on September 5th .

12 Months of Orchids – Building a collection with blooms every month of the year.

At our next regular meeting at the San Fernando Valley Orchid Society, on January 7th at 7:00 pm, Peter Lin will be presenting his newest talk on “12 Months of Orchids”. This fast paced PowerPoint presentation will show you how to build an orchid collection to have blooming plants for each month of the year.

Peter started growing orchids over 30 years ago, but then stopped due to school and starting a career. It wasn’t until about 11 years ago that the orchid “bug” came back and he is now heavily involved once again. He is an accredited judge with the American Orchid Society and a hybridizer of mini-catts. He enjoys meeting with other orchid enthusiasts, and can often be found at various orchid shows and societies around the country. He also has hundreds of photos of his orchids that he maintains on Flickr. You can view them by typing this address into the internet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/minicatt/collections/

Due to limited growing space, Peter likes to specialize in miniature orchids, both species and hybrids, and has received numerous AOS awards. His other interests in orchids include Dendrobiums, Angraecoids, and Neofinetias. He maintains a collection of a thousand or more orchids at his home in Southern California in 3 small greenhouses, as well as an offsite greenhouse.

Don’t forget to bring a notepad and a pen. You just might want to take notes.